You Must Buy Spare Parts

WELCOME TO THE NO BS ZONE OF TEDDY JACOBSON


This is a topic that you must take very seriously. I keep getting emails about this all the time and there are "MORONS" out there that think that this is not necessary because they have installed what they think is a good five dollar sear. When people come to visit me and this topic of parts comes up I gladly show them some broken parts.

I have an "EXTERNAL" extractor that came out of a Kimber 1911 pistol that has the claw missing because it broke right off. This was due to an air bubble in the claw area.
I have a magazine catch assembly that came out of a 1911 Kimber that is broken in half. This was probably due to an air bubble in the MIM part.

Mechanical things either wear out or break and you must understand this is a fact of life. There is no way to tell before hand in looking at a part. If you use a particular handgun for protection of life and property you must look at this gun in a different light. I personally tend to favor my Glocks and I have every part in that Glock in Duplicate, things happen that you or I have no control of.

Lets look back at previous handguns such as STAR OF SPAIN. They are now out of business and if you have one of their models and rely on it and some important part were to break, WHAT WOULD YOU DO ???
I have seen many STAR handgun parts that needed to be changed through the years. I really do not know if after market companies are even making springs for all these STAR handguns anymore. Many people still own them and use them. Would I now purchase a STAR pistol ??? NO, not even if I got one dirt cheap.

Lets talk about the DETONICS pistols of years past, do you know who stocks parts and recoil springs and guide rods and extra magazines ??? I DO NOT HAVE A CLUE. I had a phone call the other day from a man that wanted to buy the small 9mm DETONICS pistol and he said he could get it very cheap and he asked me if I would buy one, I TOLD HIM I WOULD NOT EVER BUY ONE BECAUSE OF PARTS AVAILABILITY. If you can not get extra parts for a serious carry handgun, you have nothing. I used to own a small DETONICS pistol which if I remember right was model MC-1, I sold it many years ago. This pistol was never reliable for me. In order for me to carry a handgun I do not set up super high standards as my requirements are for a south paw and I use a Glock with a very heavy New York Trigger spring for safety.

Owning a handgun that is no longer made represents major problems in certain cases. The only exception I can come up with in my very own case is that I depend on an HK P7 M8 pistol because it is the very best 9mm on this planet. Parts will be hard to find in hard times but I have an extra P7 so that can canabalize it for parts. My friend Marc at www.ismi-gunsprings.com 800 773 1940 is super smart and he knows more about springs than anyone I ever met or know in my life. He understands that the P7 has a tremendous cult following and that this P7 will never go away. He will have Chrome Silicon wire springs available for this P7 pistol available very soon. I have even taken the original striker spring out of my pistol and sent it to him so he could get the dimensions off it. I will not stock these springs but I will buy a number of Recoil springs and striker springs and magazine springs from him when he gets them back from the heat treating company he uses which will be soon. THIS WILL BE A MAJOR ADVANCEMENT TO THE OWNERS OF AN HK P7, THAT WANT TO UPGRADE THEIR PISTOL. I know the HK gunsmiths and told them about this.

There are very few out of manufactured handguns that I would ever carry, but another handgun that I consider one of the very best designs in this world is the MAKAROV. Marc at ISMI is also making a recoil spring for this handgun and it will also be made out of Chrome Silicon wire and this will be a major improvement also. ALL PISTOLS THAT HAVE A FIXED BARREL THAT IS ATTACHED TO THE FRAME HAS SHOWN ME TO BE SUPER ACCURATE. IT IS WHAT IT IS, I am just reporting reality to you from my vast experience. YOU MUST HAVE SPARE PARTS FOR ANY CARRY HANDGUN YOU CHOOSE TO RELY ON AND USE OFTEN, otherwise you may wind up with a wonderful paperweight.

Lets talk about the old AMT line of handguns. Would I buy or carry one ??? NEVER. Maybe you can tell me who has a full line of parts for these obsolete out of manufacture handguns. I would no longer take in any handgun that is no longer made. I no longer want to take in much work as its not fair to you unless I can do something in a reasonable amount of time so as not to tie up your handgun.

Lets disciss the wonderful MIM parts that everyone is raving about. IF THEY ARE MADE RIGHT THEY ARE FINE AND ARE SUPER HARD, IF THEY HAVE AN AIR BUBBLE IN CRITICAL AREA THAT PART MAY AND OFTEN DOES BREAK. I HAVE SEEN THIS TIME AND TIME AGAIN. The current president of Sig Sauer is the ex President of Kimber. This man has now changed most all the internals of the entire current line of carry sigs to MIM (Metal Injection Molded) parts, it is my personal opinion that the current line of sig carry pistols are not the equal of the older sig pistols. This is just my opinion based on my vast amount of experience that most other people lack. They are still a good handgun but not for a lefty like me. Sig still incorporates a reset spring design in their carry handguns and I do not know of any other current manufacture that uses this system. You must have extra reset springs.

The original HK USP pistol did include a reset spring design in their full size 9mm model, but they were smart enough to change this design. The entire like of HK USP pistols that are currently made no longer use this reset design. While we are on the subject of HK pistols let me say that in order to change the captivated recoil spring, the factory has a special JIG that they use in order to install a new spring. They break the existing RING that holds the assembly and you must replace the ring, the average person can not do this procedure. It is a good idea if you shoot your HK USP a great deal to buy an entire captivated guide rod assembly from an HK dealer like CFI in Dallas or call the Factory in Sterling, Va.

In a recent conversation with MARC at ISMI he told me that he would have Chrome Silicon wire springs available for the SW "J" frame around the first week of September 2005. Please call Marc at 800 773 1940 instead of me because he has the answers and I do not. I have no idea what poundages these springs will be offered in and that is up to him. I want to make sure that you must understand just putting in very light springs in any handgun made does not give you an instant trigger job as you must know how to eliminate the friction out of the system. Marc is very aware of the nonsense people do with a so called trigger job and he will never steer you wrong in what you need. He is a very ethical man.

When I set up a handgun for me to carry using super light springs are the last thing I want. My carry guns work every time and if they had a failure to fire there would be a 99.9% chance that it would be caused by a defective primer and not the gun and or its components that I have installed. I was at the POLICE range in 1970 and the officer next to me fired his Colt 45 acp and it went click instead of bang. We all stopped to look at the BRAND NEW FACTORY REMINGTON BULLET after he removed it from the chamber and the primer had a very hard primer hit and it was just a dead primer that could have cost him his life. This was a high dollar box of Remington Hollow points and not the Remington cheap target grade ammunition.

You must pick out one or two carry handguns that you will rely on and start getting extra parts and springs for that handgun. I NEVER RELY ON JUST ONE HANDGUN, I MEAN NEVER. DO NOT BELIEVE THE BS ARTISTS THAT TELL YOU THAT YOU DO NOT NEED A SPARE CRITICAL PART. I was adjusting an external extractor on a Para Ordnance pistol many years ago and this is done with bending tension. These extractors were cast and when I started to bend it slightly, it broke in half like a twig, because there was an air bubble in the area of the cast extractor where was bending it. MIM IS NO BETTER IF THERE IS AN AIR BUBBLE. You must use a machined heat treated extractor.

I suggest you start a list on a pad of paper. Dedicate a separate page to each handgun that you are serious about and write down everything we have discussed in past and current commentaries as to which parts and springs you need. If the handgun has not been refined call the factory and stay with the factory rated and supplied springs. I have no objection replacing factory springs after I do my work of removing the friction from the action and installing either a Wolff spring or an ISMI spring depending on what poundages are available. The very handguns that cause many gunsmiths or wannabbeeee smiths a great deal of problems are the line of Sig handguns because they DO NO UNDERSTAND HOW TO DEAL WITH THE RESET SPRING DESIGN WHICH IS IN ALL SIG PISTOLS THAT PEOPLE CARRY. THE RESET SPRING IN SIG PISTOLS IS VERY FRAGILE AND THE BEST OF THE LOT IS THEIR MODEL 239. The 239 uses a totally different design and it is much less prone to break but the new models have all MIM parts in them. The only reason that I can figure is that Mr. Benjamin Franklin has called the shots and that is what has motivated almost every company to convert to MIM parts which may be made in any one of a half dozen countries, we will never know cause they will never tell you.

Hope this type of commentary has been helpful to you. I will try and write as many commentaries each week as my health allows. You have access to my archives which has a tremendous amount of information available. My son CARLES has been spending a great deal more time with me and he has learned a great deal and he will continue to learn about more models and especially the parts that I have always dreamed of and it may be coming a reality very soon. I will have no part of it as other people will be in charge but it will be my design and my LOGO may be used. Just wanted to give you something to think about.

All my commentaries past and present are my personal opinion and my personal viewpoint and if you do not like what I write or say, no one forces you to come here. I am getting between 500 and 1000 hits per day and most people know this is where the truth is. Remember what President TRUMAN said, I Tell them the truth and they think I am giving them hell.

Teddy